Book Reviews

The world would not be right if Sharon Creech hadn’t written Granny Torrelli Makes Soup. In this book, Rosie tells her Granny Torrelli problems with her blind friend Bailey as they make soup and pasta. I love how Granny Torrelli tells stories of what had happened to her with her friend Pedro to help Rosie deal with what is happening. Granny Torrelli always has something to tell Rosie that helps both her and me think. And after I heard about Rosie learning Braille, can you guess what? I decided to learn Braille, too!

Every single book seems to have a happy ending where A) they find the child, B) they find the parents, C) they get out of the basement, D) they get married, or E) they stop being so sad about their brother’s death. Granny Torrelli, with two parts, two stories, and two endings, has more to it. The stories aren’t resolved; the characters resolve it themselves. When Granny Torrelli goes off to the bathroom, it gives Rosie time to think, time to think about what she should do, what she has done, and you hear those thoughts and think about them. Only Sharon Creech can pull this off, making readers think about not just the book, but real life, their lives. Everybody reading can relate to Rosie somehow, think about something that she should do, think about something that they should do.

Granny Torrelli pulls off something that we can all admire. She tells stories of her life that don’t always have happy endings, but always have a moral, and always have to do with the problem. She tells them while making soup, while making pasta. Subconsciously, the soup and the pasta and how they make it lines up with the story and makes it flow smoother. You can tell that the cooking helps mellow out Rosie, helps her think, helps her talk, helps her listen, helps her understand. This made me think about what I do that helps me think, that helps me talk, that helps me listen, that helps me understand. Whenever I have a problem, whenever I need help, whenever I feel like I am going to scream, all I have to do is think back to this book, and all is well.